You might have already heard about the new Valorant agent, Iso. He offers some unique abilities but how strong are they really?
Opinions on the new agent Iso, set to release on October 31, are divided. Some label the Duelist as overpowered, while others view him as useless on the team and prefer the kits of other duelists. We'll explain where Iso's strengths lie in his abilities and where potential pitfalls might be.
Unique Counter-Abilities But High Skill Ceiling
Contigency
Iso's kit brings with it some nice counters, for example against Operators or certain abilities of other agents. But at the same time, the abilities also have their flaws. His moving bulletproof wall, called Contingency, allows you to get closer to the angle of Operator players, which isn't exactly ideal for them. In general, the wall helps to isolate fights, which is what Iso's abilities are mostly built upon.
On the other hand, enemies can use the wall as cover to change their position, giving them time to consider from which angle they want to peek to utilize a surprise effect. Moreover, the wall isn't as wide as the one from Harbor.
Double Tap
Another good counter to Operators is his Double Tap ability. Basically, if you forgot what it does, it spawns an orb above the head of a killed enemy, granting Iso a shield when he shoots said orb. Said shield absorbs the next damage, regardless of source.
By the way, the cooldown of the shield, which lasts for 15 seconds, renews every time you kill an enemy. It only disappears when the cooldown expires or if you take damage. This means in theory, you could pull off a full Ace with the shield being active if you play it fast enough – which would be an extra flex.
However, the orb could turn out to be more of a nuissance in some situations and having something like Reyna's dismiss would be better.
You have to move your crosshair placement upward, even if just briefly, to shoot the orb. This makes it difficult to adjust your crosshair when the next enemy quickly approaches to refrag their teammate. In such situations, you'd need insane aim to get those flicks. Especially when at least two enemies push you at once, you won't have time to shoot the orb to get your shield. In contrast, you can use Reyna's dismiss immediately after killing the first enemy.
Undercut
This ability, which is similar to Omen's blind, makes enemies vulnerable, causing them to take more damage. This means that eco-round weapons in Iso's hands (or his teammates') can also be instantly lethal when headshotting (such as the Spectre, Ghost, or even the pistol).
Kill Contract
Storytime's over.Iso, VALORANT's newest Duelist Agent from China, joins us in Episode 7: Act III. pic.twitter.com/1z5dbPgXUj
— VALORANT (@VALORANT) October 19, 2023
Now, the Ultimate Ability, which pulls the nearest enemy into another dimension to fight in a 1v1 against Iso, can counter multiple Ultimates of other agents because in this other dimension, no abilities can be used. This way, agents who use their "enhanced" weapon through their Ultimate like Jett, Chamber, and Neon can be countered, forcing them to face a 1v1 with their actual weapon.
Cypher and Killjoy Setups are disabled as soon as they're caught by the Ult. You can even pull a Viper out of her Ult.
The ultimate can be a useful entry, letting Iso remove a defender from the site. This way his teammates will have an easier time to take over. Moreover, even if Iso loses the fight in the other dimension, teammates know by a mark where both agents will respawn. This way the returning enemy can be killed immediately.
Iso has some advantages that increase the odds of him winning the 1v1 battle: First, his shield which we know from the Double Tap ability, is automatically activated as soon as Iso enters the other dimension. In addition, the enemy only has one wall, while Iso receives two to hide behind. That means the enemy must guess, since they don't know which side Iso will appear from. So if Iso actually loses the 1v1 in his ultimate, you can confidently say: skill issue. (The enemy also has an advantage though, as their hp and bullets are going to be restored. Same for Iso).
For the situation where the new Duelist is the last player standing and has to defend the Spike, it doesn't really make sense to use the Kill Contract for more than one enemy. After all, the second player can defuse the Spike in peace, once Iso 'booked a hotel room' with the other enemy.
But when Iso is left with another teammate against one enemy to defuse the spike, Iso can simply make the attacker disappear.
And keep in mind that the Kill Contract can lead to weird situations. It might be confusing if suddenly two players disappear from the map and you were just about to kill one of them. In the end, teammates in ranked or other game modes, mostly aren't very coordinated.